


how mikey spent his valentine's day

by adelfie



Series: mikey's yokai adventures [2]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brotherly Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Hugs, Melodrama, Mikey can see yokai, but you don't have to read the first one for it to make sense, snuggles, yes this is a sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23020048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adelfie/pseuds/adelfie
Summary: When Mikey discovers a love-eating spirit in the woods, he doesn't expect it to make his brothers forget who he is. Human!AU
Series: mikey's yokai adventures [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654459
Comments: 22
Kudos: 63





	1. heart-shaped breakfast on friday

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends! I meant to write this and post it by Valentine’s Day, but there was like no time in between my classes. Buuuuuut I really liked this idea I had and wanted to expand a little on the universe in ‘how mikey spent his halloween’. Lets just keep it on the down low that it's a month late shhhhush....
> 
> Just fyi: Mikey’s in eighth grade (13), Donnie’s in tenth (16), Raph’s in twelfth (17), and Leo’s in college (19). I hope you enjoy!

The night was young when Mikey's dream decided to turn itself into a nightmare. It crept up onto him like an insect, and suddenly Mikey wasn't dreaming about how Klunk - Renet's pet yokai - had opened an ice cream store and had his own food truck anymore. Memories from years ago suddenly clouded over the crazy dream, things lost and things forgotten prodding at him.

When Mikey woke up, his cheeks were wet.

That was weird.

Orange sunlight peeked through the pale white curtains of their bedroom window, indicating that the morning had arrived. Mikey stared listlessly at the pattern the sunlight had left on his wall. Realization burgeoned within him that the nightmare had blanketed him with a feeling of melancholy. It was nowhere as comfortable as his real blankets. Mikey had proudly gathered three, creating a cozy pocket of warmth he _usually_ slept like a rock under.

Now he just stared at the wall, his blankets doing nothing to protect him from the after effects of the dream.

Which he couldn't even remember.

That was also… pretty weird.

Mikey's alarm rang just then, indicating the 6 AM mark. He sat up and reached over to switch it off. It was rare that he woke up before his alarm. Mikey yawned and smacked his lips. A smile bloomed on his face when he realized what day it was.

Not only was it a Friday, but it was _Valentine's Day_! That meant _chocolate_!

"Hey, good morning, Mikey, are you up yet?" Leo's voice called from the hallway. "We're having breakfast soon!"

_Leo's going to freak if he thinks I'm sad,_ Mikey thought in alarm.

Hastily, Mikey wiped his eyes dry with the end of his sleeve, just in case. His oldest brother was extremely perceptive, and Mikey didn't want to worry him for no reason. Besides, whatever the nightmare had been about, he'd already forgotten it. Everything was cool beans.

"Yes!" Mikey called back. "Coming!"

Mikey dove into his usual morning routine. He brushed his teeth in the shower, while washing his curly blond hair with strawberry shampoo, and dried off by shaking his head like he was in one of those rock bands Raph liked so much. He threw on his favorite orange hoodie with patches on each elbow because he'd fallen so many times and put a hole through it. He put on a pair of Raph's red socks (for a bit of Valentine's Day flair) and darted out, sliding right into the kitchen where Leo was dutifully flipping a hash brown patty. Raph and Donnie were sitting at the table.

"Good morning!" Mikey said, poking his nose into the fridge. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

"Happy Valentine's to you, too," Leo said, dropping a kiss on the top of Mikey's head. "Mm. Strawberry."

"I'm looking for chocolate," Mikey announced to his family. Then he looked suspiciously at Leo. "You _did_ get chocolate, right?"

"Actually, I did the shopping last weekend, and no, I did not," Donnie said with his phone in one hand and a forkful of hash brown in the other. He had the grace to look up to meet Mikey's betrayed expression.

"Treachery!" Mikey yelled, pointing at him. "It's _Valentine's_ _Day_ , you _fiend_. I need to snack on some that goodness."

Donnie put his phone down to point back at Mikey with equal vigor. "You didn't write it in the shopping list!"

"I forgot! What's your excuse?"

"Uh, I'm not a _mind_ reader?"

Raph, sitting at the other corner of the table, grinned. "I got chocolate," he said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Really?" Mikey asked with a grin.

"You?" Donnie said with a disbelieving stare.

"For Mona," Raph said with a dreamy sigh. "And flowers."

"Treachery," Mikey said with a shake of his head, making Donnie and Leo laugh.

Mikey wasn't actually mad, though. If anyone deserved chocolate and flowers, it was the girl who worked shifts at the bike repair shop down the street. Raph had met her a few months ago, around the holidays. For someone who had toned muscles from winning boxing tournaments, Mona had an extremely warm personality, with a sweet smile to match. Not to mention, she had an awesome sense of style. She'd won Mikey over the moment he'd seen that she decorated her motorcycle with stickers.

"Hey, you gotta treat your girl right," Raph said with a shrug. "I'm taking her out on a date. She thinks I don't care, so she's not expecting anything."

"How Mona puts up with you, I have no idea," Donnie muttered.

"When you work up the guts to ask April out, you'll get an idea of what this is like, little brother," Raph said with a grin.

Donnie's face was inflamed. "April's just a friend."

A chorus of argument erupted from all four brothers. Mikey just laughed, watching as Donnie and Raph went at it. April O'Neil was in Donnie's grade, and his best friend. With all of them talking or laughing over each other, Mikey felt _leagues_ better than he did when he'd first woken up.

"Her mom was my _teacher_ in middle school," Donnie said. "Not to mention Mikey's teacher, currently!"

"Exactly! Her mom already knows you!" Raph said.

"Gee, Raph! Thanks for making it weird."

"All I'm saying is that it's Valentine's Day, and girls love it when guys do stuff for them on Valentine's Day."

Leo slid a heart-shaped hash brown onto Mikey's plate, next to his eggs, and Mikey grinned in delight as the oldest finally sat down to join them.

"He's got a point, Don," Leo said with a knowing, wide grin.

"Don't you start," Donnie retaliated, turning on him. "What about you and Karai?"

Leo made a indifferent face. "What _about_ Karai?"

"Yeah, he's pretty much gotten over her," Raph said. "Now he's all goo-goo eyes for Usagi."

Mikey raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Enough out of you, little brother," Leo said warningly at Mikey. "Unless you want our love surgeon dissecting _your_ love life."

Mikey grinned, unperturbed by this warning.

They all dug into breakfast, and conversation flowed from there. This was one of the _better_ ways to start a day, in Mikey's opinion. Some days they were all just too busy. Mikey smiled, and downed his orange juice. He'd have to make a point to tell Leo that he enjoyed family breakfast. Maybe Leo would, like, turn it into Hamato family _law_.

"So, Mikey," Leo said. "Excited for the after school dance today?"

"I hope you're not just wearing _that_ ," Raph said, eying Mikey's hoodie.

"Hey!" Mikey said, looking offended. He hesitated, unsure of how to tell his brothers that he wasn't actually going. The only reason they _knew_ was because Leo kept a keen eye on his school activities calendar they'd sent to each students' home at the beginning of the school year.

"You can wear whatever you're comfortable in," Leo said. "But if you want to change into like a dress shirt and pants or something -"

"Which is highly suggested if you're going to appeal to the ladies," Raph added.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Then just give us a call, okay?"

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," Mikey said.

From inside his hoodie pocket, Mikey's phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see that Renet had sent him a video of Klunk in what looked like Renet's backyard.

The cat yokai stood with his swishy tails to the camera, his four paws apart with intent and his wings opened in full glory, feathers ruffling in the breeze. Klunk lowered his head to inspect something in the grass.

" _Hello Klunky!_ " he could hear Renet's voice in the background as she zoomed in on the yokai. " _What are you up to over there?_ "

What happened next was terrifying. Klunk swiveled his head completely around, his eyes glowing and a dead mouse in his jaw.

Renet screamed. " _NOOO-_ " before the video ended abruptly.

Mikey stared, jaw dropping.

The following text that she'd sent read, _This just happened and now_ _I'm traumatized._

Mikey let out a nervous giggle, but he had completely lost what remained of his appetite thanks to that. 90% of the time, Klunk was an adorable mess of feathers and fluff and kitten paws.

But this. This was part of the 10%.

When he looked up, his brothers were looking at him.

"Just a video of Klunk," Mikey said with a shrug.

"Ah. That reminds me," Donnie said, getting Mikey's attention. Swallowing his bite, he gave Mikey a pointed look. "Can you see any yokai right now?"

Yokai.

Even though it had been months since Mikey had learned that he could see yokai, a.k.a. strange spirits floating around in the world, the concept was still _so_ weird to get used to. The fact that they were so rare to see didn't exactly help. If Mikey didn't already see Klunk on an everyday basis, he might have started to wonder if he'd imagined the whole thing up.

The way Renet had explained it, there seemed to be a special barrier of protection around their city that blocked most yokai from entering. Save for Klunk, Mikey hadn't seen any new yokai since Halloween. Mikey wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

With a quick glance around the apartment, Mikey shook his head. "Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "

Donnie nodded. "Just checking. It just blows my mind still."

"You're not the only one," Leo said worriedly. "Are you sure you're safe around that… thing, Mikey?"

Mikey gave Leo an injured look. "Klunk's not a _thing_. He's my friend."

"A creepy, owlish, cat yokai friend," Donnie pointed out. At Mikey's glare, he added, "You drew a pretty scary picture, to be fair."

Mikey's brothers couldn't see yokai, as far as they all knew. They couldn't see them through video or photographs, either. Up until last Halloween, the four of them hadn't known that the yokai from their father's stories were _real_.

"I'm perfectly safe. Klunk's harmless," Mikey said firmly. He decided to not tell Leo about the creepy thing Klunk had done with his neck and also to that poor mouse.

"Then it's settled," Raph said, sticking up for Mikey because he was awesome like that.

"I just don't want a repeat of last year," Leo mumbled.

Last year, Mikey had met a bird yokai. Long story short, it had turned out _totally fine._ Yes, maybe his brothers had thought he'd been decapitated for a few minutes, but other than a little bit of trauma _it was totally fine._

Mikey watched Leo, wishing he could make his brother stop worrying so much. He nudged Leo's foot under the table. Leo looked up at him, the weight of the burden he carried as oldest brother and head of the family in those blue eyes of his.

Mikey wanted to erase some of that burden.

"There won't be," Mikey said. "I promise."

* * *

Chris Bradford used to be a bully. Mikey remembered in sixth grade, everyone used to be sort of afraid of him. Then he got some friends - Xever and Fong - who had changed him for the better. Now they all just did… well, Mikey wasn't ever completely sure what the three of them were up to.

In Ms. O'Neil's homeroom, which was always thematically coherent with whatever special day they were celebrating, pink and red hearts were strung up on the window, casting the classroom in a pink and red glow as students chattered on. Girls giggled in the back, gossiping about which boys had asked who to the Valentine's Dance after school. Some people were playing Yu-gi-oh in the other back corner.

Bradford, Xever, and Fong were busy taping a band of foil around their heads, an array of weird equipment in a box in front of them. Mikey lifted his pencil from his math homework - which he was _way_ better at than he was last year - and just stared at them, perplexed.

"Hold still, it's not straight," Xever was saying as he adjusted the band around Bradford's head.

"You're not straight," Bradford shot back, laughing and high-fiving Fong.

"Okay, cool it," Ms. O'Neil said from her desk, not lifting her head from the stack of papers she was grading.

"It's all good, Ms. O," Xever said. "Bradford's rudimentary jokes aren't hurtful because I'm bi and he knows that."

"Yeah, love comes in different shapes and forms and I'm all about respecting that kind of stuff," Bradford added. "Xever's a real bro for putting up with me."

Ms. O'Neil still didn't look up, too busy grading. "Okay, boys. Make sure you clean up the foil after you're done playing aliens."

"We're not playing aliens," Fong grumbled.

"What… _are_ you guys doing?" Mikey asked, looking at them with wary curiosity.

Fong looked at him. "Hey, Mikey. We're making ghost sensors with this foil to use later today."

"Ghost sensors?" Mikey asked dubiously.

"Yeah. For ghost _hunting_ ," Bradford said with a grin.

Mikey opened his mouth to ask a question, then closed it because he wasn't sure what sort of question would be appropriate in this situation.

"Why, you ask?" Xever asked for him.

"I didn't ask," Mikey said quickly.

"Well, I'll tell you," Xever answered. "Private conference of the Triumvirate, plus one!"

"W-what?" Mikey stared at Bradford, Xever, and Fong scooted their desks around his, connecting them. "What are we doing?"

"This is how we initiate our private meetings. For our - and now _your_ \- ears only. We can't reveal this information just willy-nilly," Xever said, the 'duh' hanging in his tone. "Too many ears hearing this could result in -" Xever lowered his voice to a whisper. "- _mass hysteria_."

"Okay, what's this information?" Mikey asked, a growing smile on his face.

"Death," Bradford said, voice somber. "Probably. Xever's neighbor, a couple days ago. Sixth grader."

_That_ did its work quick in wiping the smile from Mikey's face.

"Wait, seriously?" Mikey stammered. "What?"

"It's not confirmed, just highly likely," Xever said. "My neighbor's name is - _was_ Baxter. Baxter Stockman. Sort of a nerd, his parents are both accountants. Collected Pokemon cards. Was allergic to shellfish."

"Heh. Allergic to shellfish, what a nerd," Bradford chuckled.

Fong made a _what-the-heck_ face at him. "He's possibly dead, have some respect, man."

Mikey didn't understand. Were they joking? He could never tell when they were joking.

" _Anyway_ , he said to me the other day that he was going into the woods behind the school to look for Lady Love," Xever said. "Had a crush, you see."

"Lady Love? Like… that old ghost story the school has?" Mikey asked, recognizing the name.

The guys nodded.

"He was a _big_ believer in ghosts and stuff. I think he wanted us all to dress up as the Ghostbusters last Halloween, but you know, we rebelled against that idea. I regret that now, since he's… you know, _possibly dead_ ," Xever said with a shake of his head.

Baxter Stockman… the name sounded familiar, like Mikey had read it before. He remembered reading that name on a Quiz Bowl trophy in one of the display cases in the school. Donnie had trophy with his name on it, too.

"Okay, so he went into the woods," Mikey said. "What happened then?"

Xever shrugged. "He's not been back since Wednesday, so nobody knows. That's why we're assuming the worst."

Mikey's eyes widened. _That's… heavily concerning._ "Hasn't his family called the police?"

"Well, that's the weird part. His parents? Don't seem to really know what I'm talking about when I go over to ask if Baxter can hang out," Xever said with a frown. "They don't seem to remember him. It's so weird. And I asked his grandma, who works at the UPS Store, and _she_ doesn't remember him either. Trust me when I say that's weird. Baxter's grandma _loves_ Baxter. Like… she has 'proud grandmother of Baxter' in her profile on SeniorsOnly."

"Why do you know that?" Fong asked carefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry Fong, what _else_ am I supposed to do at a UPS Store when I need package delivered, not make conversation with his grandma? Would you rather I _ignore_ the nice lady?"

"No. Just... poor Baxter," Fong said with a sigh.

Mikey set his pencil down and leaned back in his seat. _So this is definitely taking the cake of being the weirdest thing today,_ he thought.

"Poor, sweet, innocent Baxter," Xever added, and pointed to the box of equipment. "That's why we jacked all this stuff from the Ghost Hunting Club."

"And by 'jacked', we mean asked nicely," Bradford said. "We're going to try to find this Lady Love, with _science_."

"The GHC offered to do it for us, but this is personal," Xever said.

"Plus, their average service time? It's weeks. Just plain unprofesh," Bradford said. "Avenging a comrade doesn't wait around."

"We're going right after school," Xever said. "So we're prepping ourselves." He pointed to the foil headbands they'd made.

Fong nodded. "Well, right after the school dance."

"Right, we're going right after the Valentine's Dance," Xever agreed. "Bradford wants to ask that one girl from English class."

"She's nice. And smart. And pretty," Bradford said with a dreamy little sigh.

Mikey was feeling a little sick. Not from the topic of the dance - he hadn't exactly planned on going - but because of what the guys had just said. Someone had disappeared, and their family didn't remember them?

Something was off.

"A total package," Xever was saying. "As Baxter's grandma would know."

"Her name is Renet, stop objectifying her, dude," Bradford said with a laugh.

Mikey looked up at Bradford in surprise. He'd been talking about Renet?

* * *

Mikey and Renet shared the last class of the day together. That meant two things: one, they got to work through their physics homework together, and two, they got to sit next to each other! Renet was sort of awesome. They'd met last year, and she - along with Casey Jones, a high-schooler - were the only other people that Mikey knew who could see yokai.

"Mikey, hi!" Renet said, sliding into her seat next to him eagerly, her long pigtails bouncing with her jovial mood. "Aren't you so excited?"

"Excited? I mean, yeah, relatively," Mikey said, staring at a kid in front of them who had already dozed off in his seat. Class hadn't even started yet.

"No, I mean, like, for the school dance," Renet said, her eyes sparkling. "I know the Winter Ball is more of a big deal, but I took a peek in the gymnasium and I think they're setting up a chocolate fountain, so I'm _kind of_ jazzed."

Mikey looked at her. He was going to be missing out on a _chocolate fountain?_ "No way!"

"Way," Renet said with a serious nod. "Also, I'm going to grab as many Twizzlers as I can for Klunk. I have a working theory that Twizzlers make him less gassy at night."

"Renet," Mikey said, pulling his sleeves up over his fingers. "I'm not going to the Valentine's Dance."

"Oh. Oh, sorry. Wait, why not?" Renet asked, and Mikey winced.

"Um, it's… I have something else I need to do after school," Mikey said, and realized that what he was saying was actually true. "Bradford, Xever, and Fong told me something that I think involves a yokai."

It was a hypothesis, at least. Donnie would be proud, if this whole thing wasn't so disturbing.

Renet looked at him now, her mouth dropped open in shock. "Seriously?"

The bell rung, and class began. Mikey smiled at Renet, and shrugged apologetically, even though it was clear Renet wanted more of an explanation.

He couldn't blame her. Their city was pretty much barren of yokai. Renet slid her notebook a few inches over to him on the table in a discreet way that wouldn't catch the teacher's notice. Mikey looked down to see three question marks at the top, in Renet's curly handwriting.

_???_

Biting back a giddy smile (it was sort of bad to be giddy about a missing person, right?), Mikey wrote back.

_B, X and F told me that a kid named Baxter disappeared 2 days ago in the woods behind the school, and now his family doesn't remember him anymore._

Renet's eyes widened after reading it. She pointed to the word 'woods' and made a confused gesture.

Mikey wrote, _Apparently Baxter wanted to go see Lady Love._

Renet looked at him blankly. Taking her pencil, she wrote, _Who the heck is Lady Love?_

Oh, Renet didn't know, Mikey realized. He wondered if he could summarize the ghost story in writing.

_It's a ghost story that they have about our school. They say there's a ghost of this girl who used to go here that roams the woods. If she's in a good mood, she can give you a glimpse of your soulmate. It's sort of creepy, but a lot of kids like to head up there to look for her._

Renet finished reading his words. _Like Bloody Mary, kind of?_

Mikey began to nod, then thought about it. _IDK. Does Bloody Mary give you a glimpse of your soulmate?_

_Yeah, in a version that I read once_ , Renet wrote. _Why else would people call her name? To die?_

Mikey bit back a laugh. _Yes?_

Renet made a funny horrified face at him that made him snort.

_What makes you think that Lady Love has anything to do with Baxter's family not remembering him?_ Renet wrote. Then she added, _Assuming Lady Love is real._

Mikey made a grim face.

_Well, it's sort of too much to be a coincidence, isn't it? Considering that of all the people that forgot Baxter, they were the ones that loved him the most._

His words seemed to have an effect on Renet. Renet scribbled, _Then count me in on your hunt for Lady Love!_

Mikey looked at her in surprise. _But y_ _ou'll miss the dance? And the chocolate fountain???_

Renet shrugged, and wrote, _There'll be more dances. But how many times can a person say they've seen a ghost?_


	2. meeting lady love, still friday

"I wonder if this counts as ghost-hunting or yokai-hunting," Renet commented, ducking underneath a sharp-looking branch.

This was… _a really good question._

They'd started walking on the path that led into the woods six minutes ago, and had diverged off the path in the past two. If Baxter - the kid who had disappeared and whose family had forgotten he ever existed - had gone to seek out Lady Love, Mikey's best guess was that he'd gone to that one group of wide trees that grew a little deeper in the woods. Those trees were a lot easier to carve initials into, apparently.

Also, there was literally nowhere else to go in the little stretch of the woods behind the school.

" _I_ wonder if a ghost can be considered a type of yokai," Mikey said as they passed a stretch of green mossy tree roots. "Or would it be the other way around?"

"Would it? Does that mean that Klunk came from… a cat who _died_?" Renet asked, eyes wide. Then she lowered her voice. "Does this mean we're being _haunted_?"

They looked at their yokai friend who was actively running around ahead of them, chasing a butterfly through some weeds. As if knowing that they were talking about him, Klunk stuck all his tails up with pride and turned his rear towards them before walking off.

" _Aw_ ," Mikey and Renet cooed at the same time.

"He's _adorable_ ," Renet whispered.

Well, there would be no way to know from Klunk, that much was certain.

After discovering the existence of yokai, Donnie had come up with an entire list of questions about yokai - most of which they didn't have solid answers to. Mikey made a mental note to add to Donnie's list when he got home.

"Donnie says that there's got to be an expert on them existing _somewhere_ ," Mikey told Renet as they followed after Klunk. "It's too bad we don't know any."

Renet nodded, humming in thought. "Oh my gosh, you know what? We can just ask Lady Love if she knows anything about yokai if we find her!"

The idea made Mikey pause.

"Oh wow, you're _right_ ," he said with a gush of renewed excitement. That was new! Yokai or ghost or whatever, Mikey had never talked with any supernatural entity. What if he got answers to all of Donnie's questions?

" _Unless_ ," Renet whispered, for dramatic effect, "Lady Love switches it _up_ on us and _we're_ the ones being hunted by the end of this? Whoa."

Mikey laughed nervously. "Right. There's a good chance that _she's_ the reason Baxter disappeared. We should probably be careful. It's a good thing we've got Klunk, huh?"

"He can be our tracker and mascot _and_ bodyguard," Renet agreed.

"Mascot?" Mikey echoed.

Renet blushed. "Oh… it's just something I made up in my head. Cuz, you know, you and I… and Casey, for that matter, we can all see yokai. It's silly, but I feel like we have a little club."

"No, you're so right," Mikey said encouragingly. "Klunk is _definitely_ our mascot."

When Renet smiled, it was so adorable it was precious.

They both watched as Klunk licked his butt and yawned, flopping on his side in a patch of dead leaves and foliage.

Arriving at the patch of trees, Mikey and Renet stopped to view the scene. The foliage around them was thicker here, the green leaves darkening from the thickness that shielded this part of the woods from the daylight. Birds sang from their nests, and crickets chirped. In the distance, cars could be heard driving down the road. The trees that took up space here were old and thick. Something about them was just _huggable_ , and Mikey heard Renet's shout of laughter as he threw his arms around one. _Nice!_

Mikey extracted himself, and winced. A spider had landed on his arm. He flicked it off.

Renet whistled.

"Look at all these messages carved in the trunks!" she exclaimed, walking around and reading one aloud. "'BJ and BU forever', _aw that's so cute_..."

Mikey checked his watch. Okay, his brothers thought he was at the dance, so he had about an hour until he had to head back.

_I'll just tell them the grass marks on my pants and the twigs in my hair were an intentional fashion choice,_ Mikey thought decisively.

Renet cupped her hands around her mouth and called out. "Lady Love, you hanging around here?"

Mikey looked at the tree trunks. Moss grew in some of the carvings. It was sort of amazing, how far back the tradition went. Some carvings were hard to read because the tree had grown so much. If a yokai could fester simply on feelings and emotions alone - which was a theory Donnie had proposed one time - then this spot was perfect for it.

"Excuse us, Lady Love," Mikey called, joining in with Renet. "My name's Mikey and this is Renet! We just want to talk!"

"Sorry we couldn't, like, schedule an appointment in advance!" Renet called. "We couldn't contact your secretary!"

Mikey giggled.

"DUDE!" a voice exploded from somewhere behind them.

_That_ was definitely not Lady Love. Mikey whirled around to see Bradford charging out of the bushes, his head and wrists decorated in foil bands as he pointed aggressively at him, then at Renet.

"What are you doing out here with her?" Bradford yelled.

Mikey backed away from Bradford's finger. _Whoa, there!_ This was an unexpected turn of events. Behind Bradford emerged Xever and Fong, both in foil and holding different equipment up. They were all, Mikey noticed just then, wearing dress clothes. For the _dance_.

"Hey, Renet," Fong greeted casually. "Hey, Mikey."

"Don't 'hey Mikey' him, Fong!" Bradford said, his face turning red. Spinning on Mikey, he glared sharply at him, which confused the heck out of Mikey. "So you thought it would be a fine idea to just _walk_ out of school with my date?"

"Your date?" Renet repeated absently, looking confused.

"Your - _oh_ ," Mikey said, realizing that Bradford had wanted to ask Renet to the dance. "No, I wasn't -"

"Dude, I'm going to _pummel_ you!"

"Whoa!" Mikey yelped as Bradford pushed him. Mikey yelped, the backs of his elbows hitting harsh roots underneath him to catch his fall. Over his own shout of surprise, he heard Renet, Xever, and Fong's shouts of concern and alarm as well.

"Hey, dude, stop!" Xever shouted, grabbing Bradford's arms from behind.

"Mikey, you good?" Fong asked, helping Mikey up.

"Yeah," Mikey said, even though his elbows stung. "Bradford, look, I'm sorry! Renet and I are just friends, we were just hanging out and trying to look for Lady Love -"

"OH SO that's how it's gonna be?" Bradford yelled, huffing and puffing. "WAR, YOU CURLY HAIRED GIRL THIEF! BLOOD WILL BE DRAWN!"

"Stop it, please!" Renet shouted over the chaos, sounding annoyed.

"Bradford, chill out!" Xever snapped. "You're being stupid, man."

"I'LL SHOW _YOU_ STUPID! Okay, I just heard myself, you're right, I'm sorry," Bradford said, immediately switching back to himself and breathing carefully. He tilted his head back to the sky and squeezed his eyes shut once before opening them and looking at Mikey. "I'm sorry, Mikey. I broke my code. I allowed my conflicted heart to take over my actions. Forgive my unforgivable sins."

Just like that, Bradford seemed to be back to… well, what was normal for him. Mikey exhaled, allowing his heart rate to return to its usual pace.

"It's okay, Bradford," he said, brushing himself off. "No harm, no foul, right?"

Bradford's face scrunched up like he was trying to solve a complicated math equation. "But I… I _did_ harm you."

Oh, right. He had. "Oh, right," Mikey said, before laughing. "What's a little attacking between friends, right?"

"I'm so ashamed of myself," Bradford whispered in a tormented voice. " _My code._ "

"I-it's really alright. Water under the bridge, _seriously_ ," Mikey said, looking at Xever and Fong for help.

They both shook their heads at Mikey and rolled their eyes in a way that said _'Bradford's an idiot, we can't do anything about it'_.

"I will repair our bridge of friendship and trust in due time, Mikey," Bradford was going on. "I can do a blood oath?"

" _No_ ," everyone said at once.

Mikey laughed awkwardly. "So what brings you guys out here?"

"The dance was lame," Fong said with a shrug. "So we decided to come out and start on our ghost hunt early."

"For Baxter, right? We're trying to call out to Lady Love," Mikey told them. "No luck, though."

"Baxter?" Bradford echoed.

"Who's that?" Fong asked.

Mikey blinked at them. Were they pulling his leg?

"The sixth grader who disappeared two days ago," Mikey said. "Baxter Stockman. Won a Quiz Bowl trophy for the school. Xever's neighbor?"

Xever snapped his fingers. "The Stockmans. They are my neighbors, yes." He looked proud of himself for remembering. Then he tilted his head. "I don't think they have a kid, though."

_Huh what?_

"You mean… there's no Baxter?" Renet asked carefully.

"No, there is," Mikey insisted, looking at the trio. "You told me earlier today, remember? During homeroom? Xever, you said that his family didn't remember him."

Bradford, Xever, and Fong looked confused, which was weird.

_Really_ weird.

Wouldn't this have sparked recognition in their eyes? And then an eager rant about finding Lady Love? They'd been fanboying about this earlier!

"No… ?" Xever said. "I'm pretty sure that never happened, man. We just talked about finding the ghost of Lady Love."

Mikey just gaped at them as Fong went over to inspect one of the trees better. His thoughts ran around like an energetic hamster in its wheel.

_This is crazy, right? They're not pretending to have forgotten about the missing boy, right? And I didn't imagine the whole thing, did I?_

"Really? Ghost hunting, just out of the blue?" Renet asked, and Mikey felt a rush of relief that she was here. "Why Lady Love?"

"Well, I'm sure it came up because…" Xever seemed to not know the answer. He frowned. "You know, I don't remember how it came up, but it's appropriate, isn't it? Being Valentine's Day and all."

Mikey and Renet looked at each other again. Renet shrugged. She didn't seem as freaked out as Mikey felt - probably because she hadn't been there when the guys had discussed Baxter Stockman's mysterious disappearance and how they were going to figure out what happened. How could they have suddenly forgotten?

"Have you guys summoned her, then?" Fong asked, using an index finger to poke the tree.

" _Summoned_ her?" Mikey and Renet said at the same time.

"Yeah, guys. Lady Love doesn't show you your soulmate until you write your name in the bark and say her name three times," Fong said. "Or so they say. There's a high chance she just eats you."

Mikey and Renet exchanged glances. So _that's_ how it was supposed to be done.

"I volunteer as tribute," Bradford said. "I deserve to be eaten."

"Awesome," Xever said, adjusting his foil band and holding up his equipment. "I'll take readings."

Mikey and Renet watched as Bradford pulled out an X-acto knife and started carving out his full name in the bark. The world was silent as Bradford stepped back, closing his eyes and extending out his arms.

"Lady Love," he called out. "Lady Love."

Mikey swallowed, the air getting sharp and thick. Why was he getting nervous?

" _Lady Love_."

The wind rustled the bushes and trees around them. Renet stepped closer to Mikey, and Klunk purred, unheard by the other three boys.

All five kids stood still as the wind gushed around, holding their breaths.

"Huh," Fong said, looking around. "I guess… nothing?"

"I feel the same," Bradford said, shrugging. "Guess the ghost story is bogus."

Xever looked disappointed. "Let's keep waiting," he said, his eyes sharpening as he looked at his equipment. "Believe in the hunt, comrades."

Renet nudged Mikey. "There's no yokai here," she whispered.

Mikey sighed, nodding. There probably _wasn't_ a Lady Love yokai. Which was fine, to be expected, really. But it didn't explain why the Bradford and his friends couldn't remember Baxter. Or why Baxter had gone missing in the first place. Or how his family had forgotten about him as well.

"Maybe," Renet said, as if reading his mind, "They were just kidding about the Baxter thing? Maybe it really wasn't a big deal to them and they forgot..."

As Renet spoke, Mikey made the mistake of looking up.

Up, up, up the tall vertical trees, instead of green leaves that fluttered above and revealed a piece of the sky, there was a monster-sized shape.

It was a spider.

A giant spider, as in _as-big-as-a-rhino_.

Eight legs, stretching far and wide.

And worst of all, a _face_ \- two glossy softball-sized eyes, and a horrifyingly gleeful smile as it peered down on all of them.

Mikey couldn't make words leave his mouth fast enough. He couldn't scream or shout. His hand just shot out and clutched Renet's hand in alarm.

Renet saw his face and looked up with him. Then she gasped and let out a squeak, stumbling backwards in sheer terror, pulling Mikey down with her.

"What?" Bradford said, looking at the two of them suspiciously. Then he looked up blankly. "What's wrong?"

Renet screamed when the spider yokai's eyes shifted squishily to her and Mikey. Its smile widened maliciously, looking psychotic.

" _One, two, three, four, five_ ," The spider yokai whispered, looking down on all of them. Its voice sounded like multiple voices at once. It sent shivers down Mikey's back as it spoke. " _Five lovely snacks to fill Lady Love's belly._ "

Mikey's heart leapt in terror, and felt his blood rush down to his feet. Pulling Renet along with him, he headed back towards the trees, _away from the creepy spider_ , but something sticky stopped him. It was like there an invisible fence in front of him. Klunk yowled from somewhere, and Mikey saw the cat yokai in the distance, his wings pressed against the air in an awkward way.

"Ah! I'm stuck!" Xever cried out.

Mikey tried to turn around, but found that his hand that wasn't holding Renet's was stuck on the wall.

"Me, too!" Bradford yelled. He looked as if he were trying to run forward, but his legs were pinned together. "What is this?"

"Mikey," Renet gasped, "It's trapping us!"

Mikey couldn't breathe as the spider yokai began to descend, climbing through the air down towards them. It had, Mikey realized after a moment, created a spiderweb that spanned all around them. The web glinted in the sun, thin enough to not be seen.

"What's going on here?" Fong asked, looking confused as he tried to cut through the air with his arms. His right arm didn't swing like his left, instead getting trapped halfway above his head.

" _Shush, noisy food_ ," the spider yokai said, and suddenly she was right on top of Bradford.

"Get away from him!" Mikey shouted.

Renet had, at some point, gotten stuck, her pigtails curling up against an unseen web. "We have to get away from _her_!"

In horror, Mikey and Renet watched as the spider yokai wrapped Bradford in a silvery white cocoon at the speed of light.

" _One down, four to go_ ," the spider yokai said. Then she seemed to notice Klunk. " _Six? How lovely._ "

Soon, Xever and Fong were wrapped up, too.

"What's going on?" Fong yelled through his cocoon. "Why can't we move?"

"It's the _ghost_ , dude!" Xever said, voice muffled, trying to break free of his cocoon. "It's Lady Love!"

_They probably can't even see that they're webbed up,_ Mikey realized, trying not to scream as the spider yokai moved towards him and Renet.

"That's not Lady Love," Renet said, her voice high and frightful. "Lady Love isn't a _spider_ , she's a girl."

Mikey had to give Renet kudos for being able to come up with a logical point in the midst of being wrapped up. Now that the spider yokai was up close, Mikey could see that she had something of a human torso coming out of where the spider's face would have been, and human arms that hung uselessly down as her eight legs did all the work. Her face had been gleeful, but then she paused midway in wrapping a struggling Renet in her cocoon.

" _You can see me,_ " the spider yokai realized, her smile growing wider.

"Leave her alone!" Mikey shouted.

The spider yokai looked at _him_ now. " _You can hear me. Interesting. Lovely._ "

"Why are you doing this?" Renet asked, struggling against her bonds. "Are you going to eat us?"

" _Eat you? No. Drink you? Yes_ ," the spider yokai said.

Mikey felt faint. Drink? As in _his_ _blood?_

"Are you seriously Lady Love?" he asked.

The spider yokai looked at him, grinning as she finished wrapping Renet. Renet yelled, but went ignored. Mikey needed to save her. It was _his_ fault she was here in the first place.

_Keep talking. Stall her!_

"Lady Love was a girl who went here," Mikey started hastily, as the spider yokai made her way over to him. "She died and haunts these woods, and she'll show you your soul mate."

" _Foolhardy humans_ ," the spider yokai said. " _I do no such thing. I drink out the love from those who I capture._ "

"Dr-drink out the love?" Mikey asked. Then he gasped, realizing. "You did that to Baxter!"

Lady Love began to wrap Mikey up, spinning him slowly. " _What is a 'Baxter', you talkative human?_ "

"Baxter Stockman," Mikey said, finding it harder to breathe as the webs tightened around him. "You made his family forget about him! And just now, with Bradford and Xever and Fong, they forgot about him, too. They were talking about him just hours ago."

Lady Love nodded suddenly, like she remembered. " _You mean the small boy with the glasses. Yes, I took him on Wednesday. Took another sip a few minutes ago. Soon no one will remember him._ "

"Did you - ," Mikey swallowed. "Is he dead?"

" _No, he's not dead yet, silly human. No. I don't eat all my food at once. He's in my fridge,_ " Lady Love said. She paused. " _I like this. Talking is so lovely. It's been a while._ "

"That's horrible!" Mikey exclaimed. "Not the - not the talking part. I like talking too. But about Baxter! He has people who are worried about him!"

" _I'm fairly certain he doesn't, not anymore,_ " Lady Love said. " _You see, when I drink out the love of my lovely snacks, the ones who love them the most forget about them first._ "

Mikey stared at her. That's how Baxter's family didn't remember him anymore. He had his answer. It was too bad he was trapped with no way out. He couldn't feel his toes from how tight the bindings were.

He couldn't think of anything to say except, "You can't drink snacks."

Lady Love ignored this comment. " _With each sip I take, more and more will forget. Even strangers they only met once. It's quite merciful, isn't it? That way, no one is hurt._ "

Mikey stared at her. That… _thoroughly_ sucked. He didn't like anything about that at all! It wasn't merciful! It was still killing someone slowly and horribly!

"We don't want to be your food, though," he argued. "We're people."

" _Here we go again, with the whole 'humans don't deserve to not be on top of the food chain', and all that,_ " Lady Love drawled, rolling her eyes.

She looked at Mikey, nearly done wrapping him up. While they'd been talking, her human features had started to become more pronounced, and less scary. She looked more like a girl now, a teenager who could pass for a high school student from collarbone up. Everything else was still spidery. Very scary.

Lady Love reached out with her human hands and cradled Mikey's face. "Don't look so lost and confused, love," she said, and now she even sounded like a human. "Everyone dies one day. I just make it painless for their loved ones. You don't have to be scared, sweet."

That was a thought that hadn't really sunk in. Mikey wasn't… he wasn't going to make it out of this alive. Why had he been so complacent?

Mikey turned his head, panic building as he thought of Leo, Raph, and Donnie. This wasn't the way he wanted to go! He hadn't wanted to die like this!

But… would it be so bad? He'd see his father again, wouldn't he? Tears pricked Mikey's eyes. He noticed that Bradford, Xever, Fong, and Renet had fallen silent. Had they fallen asleep or something? He was starting to feel a little woozy himself.

Lady Love looked sad for him. "You're a sweet thing," she murmured. "I can smell how much you're loved. It's so strong… I can tell you're held deeply precious to… three others."

It was too much. It was too _sad_.

"Leave me _alone_ ," Mikey sobbed.

Lady Love shushed him, caressing his hair like a mother would. Mikey didn't want her to touch him. "My webs make you sleep, but my bites are more potent. Let me ease some of your pain, lovely one. Maybe we can even be friends, hm? I'll nurse you back to health after I'm done drinking. It's been a while since I had companionship."

Mikey didn't want her friendship if it meant feeling so hopeless.

"At least… let my friends go," he said.

Lady Love didn't respond.

"Let Renet go," he tried, his heart rate rising as Lady Love pushed his hoodie away from his neck and leaned in. "Let her go, she wasn't supposed to be here."

Lady Love's teeth sunk into the crevice of his shoulder and neck, like a vampire. Mikey whimpered and screamed from the pain that hit him all at once. She didn't just have two fangs, like those vampires did in the movies. Her mouth was all razor-sharp teeth and they felt like fire.

And then, immediate drowsiness came over him. He felt like he was sinking into a cloud, a horrible, melancholic cloud, into a land where dreams always turned into nightmares. The feeling of something taking a blade and _grating_ against something important tied to him filled his heart as Lady Love drank, _taking_ and _taking_ and _taking_.

Maybe if he slept, this horrible feeling would go away.

Something yowled, waking Mikey up with a jolt. A flash of feathers, fur, paws, and horns appeared somewhere above Lady Love, before landing on her. Lady Love pulled back from Mikey, screeching as Klunk bit into her neck.

_Yeah, how do you like it?_ Mikey thought in vengeance as Klunk clawed at Lady Love's face.

" _Monster!_ " Lady Love shouted, reverting back to her fearsome spidery self, trying to defend against Klunk's attacks. " _Mangy feline! I'll kill you!_ "

Suddenly something was ripping through Mikey's tight bonds, the cocoon falling around him like it was made of paper mache. Mikey landed on the ground with a weak grunt as a tall, large guy came into his bleary view, wearing a leather vest and holding up a machete. He wasn't an adult, despite the streak of independence in his face. He looked like he could be in high school.

" _You! Grotesque hunter,_ " Lady Love shouted as the man freed the others from their cocoons.

Mikey slowly sat up, blinking the weariness out of his eyes.

"Get out," the man said to all of them. "Run away. I'll deal with this dangerous spirit."

Mikey blinked. This strange man could see Lady Love and the webs.

The others were slowly waking up, but didn't need prompting. They all rose up and ran out. Mikey followed Renet on weak legs, hardly believing that they were escaping.

Mikey, Renet, Bradford, Xever, and Fong tore through the trees until they were back on the path. They didn't stop there, running out and down the path until they were back on proper school grounds. Mikey didn't even want to _know_ what time it was. He was definitely late. He grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket, to find no messages.

That was odd. Surely Leo, Raph, or Donnie would have been texting him about his whereabouts by now, right?

"That was… insane," Xever said, catching his breath. "What happened back there?"

"Definitely a weird wind storm," Fong said, shaking his head and squinting at the woods.

"I think this means the ghost of Lady Love is definitely for real," Bradford said. "Who wants to go rub that in the GHC's faces?"

Renet was staring at them, then down at her feet. Her body was shaking.

Mikey felt horrible that he'd put her in harms way.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, stepping towards her.

Renet looked at him, and instead of replying, continued to stare. Mikey looked back at her. Was she okay? Had she been hurt badly? Was there something on his face?

"Yeah," she said finally, blinking. "Um, thanks for asking. Who are you?"

Rocks sunk to the bottom of Mikey's stomach.

_No._

Fong looked at him, his brows furrowing. "Were you out ghost hunting, too?"

Mikey froze. His blood temperature started to sink. They couldn't remember him. _His friends couldn't remember him._

"Yeah, wait, I remember you," Bradford said, snapping his fingers.

Mikey looked at Bradford hopefully. _Please._

"You're the kid whose dad died back in sixth grade!"

Mikey's mind sort of frizzed out. Short-circuited. Stopped working. He took a shaky step backwards from Bradford, Xever, Fong, and Renet.

"Dude, shut up," Xever said. "That was really rude."

Renet looked confused. She looked from the guys to Mikey, seemingly confused about how she'd talked herself into going into the woods today when she'd clearly wanted to go to the dance.

Still, despite her confusion, she looked at Mikey. "Hi. I'm Renet," she said timidly.

_I know,_ Mikey wanted to cry. _You're my best friend._

Klunk soared over their heads and landed next to her, stretching. Renet didn't say anything, but let out a small sigh of relief.

Something terrible kicked Mikey in the guts. What had Lady Love said about loved ones forgetting? If his friends had forgotten about him, then that meant…

Mikey murmured an apology to his confused friends and ran home. It was late, but he hadn't received any messages or calls from his brothers. If Lady Love's bite meant she took from the ones who loved him the most - and his friends had already forgotten about him - then that meant - !

* * *

Mikey burst into their apartment and found Leo in the kitchen, chopping carrots to add into a large pot he was making vegetable soup in.

Leo's head swiveled on instinct to see who it was. Mikey didn't even have to make eye contact. He already knew.

Their dining table was set for three.

Instead of feeling happy to be with his brothers at the end of a hard day like he usually was, Mikey just stared at the tiled floor of the kitchen and tried not to cry.

"Hey there," Leo said, sounding surprised. "I think you found the wrong apartment, buddy."

Mikey finally looked up into Leo's deep blue eyes, which _always_ held a place for him, only to find cool wariness at a strange kid barging in.

Mikey's brothers had forgotten him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Thoughts?


	3. unquantifiable love, friday's end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you are, an extra long chapter about the bros!  
> Featuring: melodramatic moments, hugs, and snugs - so basically me projecting a lot of myself basically AHAHA enjoy!

Mikey could count the number of times he'd been too scared to speak on one hand and still not make it to five. As he stood before a brother who didn't recognize him in any way, shape, or form, this was one of those times.

"Do you need… help?" Leo asked carefully, setting the knife down and wiping his hands on the kitchen towel that hung on the oven's handlebar.

Mikey just stared at Leo, his mouth probably opening and closing like a fish's. The words weren't coming to mind. He didn't know what to say, what to try.

The spot where Lady Love had bitten him smarted and throbbed, acting as a horrible reminder of the traumatic events that had just pursued. Mikey could still feel Lady Love's fingers on the side of his face, telling him to simply not care anymore.

"Leo," Donnie's voice called from inside their pantry closet. "I have no idea what possessed me to get chocolate on my way home from school today, but _bam_ , we have chocolate now. Oh." The moment Donnie stepped out, his eyes settled on Mikey. "Who's the kid?"

Mikey inched backwards into the coat rack.

"Do you need to call your parents?" Leo offered.

Mikey shook his head wordlessly. _Dang it, say something! Make words. Tell them… tell them…_

What, exactly?

What could he tell them that they would believe? _Hi, I'm your little brother. Mikey. Yeah, right, that'll never work!_

"Do… you know me?" Mikey asked carefully.

Leo's head shook a fraction of an inch to the left at his question. He and Donnie exchanged looks.

"Should I?" Leo asked.

 _Okay, plan. Come up with a plan._ Mikey racked his brain, trying not to be horrified by Leo's response.

"I think… I…," Mikey said intelligently. He couldn't waste time being sad about this. He needed to go back to Lady Love.

Mikey backed away from Leo and Donnie, unsure of how to tell them that he was leaving to go fix something so they'd remember they had a little brother.

"I gotta go," Mikey said, watching as his brothers exchanged perplexed glances.

Then he ran out.

* * *

Mikey ran all the way back to school, stopping at the woods and staring at the expanse of the trees that he'd been in earlier that day. The sun was setting as he stared into the trees. He took a shaky step forward.

Okay, he had to be smart. He needed a plan. He couldn't get trapped in Lady Love's webs again. Picking up a large branch from the ground, Mikey held it up like a baseball bat.

 _Give back the memories you stole!_ Mikey practiced in his head. _Undo whatever jazz you did in the first place._

Mikey took a stabilizing breath, and charged in.

Only to run smack-dab into someone.

"Oof," Mikey grunted, landing on his butt. "Sorry!"

"What are you doing here again?" the someone asked, sounding alarmed.

Mikey looked up and gasped.

_It was that one guy!_

Their rescuer! The guy who'd cut him free of his bonds and told them to run out of the woods in the first place. The mysterious guy who could see yokai. And what was more, he could _recognize Mikey._ Of course, the way Lady Love's bites were… the people who knew you more deeply forgot first. He'd just run into Mikey earlier today.

The guy looked just as he had before, with his leather vest and fearsomely independent face. On his back, he carried a sleeping kid a little younger than Mikey. Was that Baxter Stockman?

"You!" Mikey gasped, pointing at him, standing up.

The guy stared, unimpressed, at Mikey.

"You saved me and my friends from that yokai," Mikey said in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"That was my question to you," the guy said slowly. "What are you doing in these woods? The spirit got a taste of you, didn't she? She'll want more."

Mikey exhaled, trying to ignore the strange wave of panic that was starting to overtake him. "I think I need to go see her again."

"Are you insane?"

"No one remembers me," Mikey explained in a rush. "My friends, my family. I'm not going anywhere until I get her to restore my family's memories."

The guy's expression shifted, moving from stoic to something almost pitying in his eyes. He looked at Mikey, the immense somber heavy.

"It's not possible," the guy said. "Lady Love is not capable of undoing the damage she does."

Mikey blinked, head spinning. Those words didn't make sense to him. He stumbled back.

"No," he said, shaking his head rapidly. "It has to be. Let me talk to her. I can… make a bargain. I can give her something in return."

"It's not possible," the guy insisted. "She will only trap you and keep you and take more from you. Everything and everyone in your life will become estranged until you have nothing to give. It will kill you. It has killed people before. Drained them. Nearly impossible to escape. Whatever you do, do not try to confront her."

Mikey didn't understand. He didn't want to understand.

And why was this guy acting like he'd had _personal experience_ with this before?

"I don't get it. If she's so dangerous, then… something has to be done. Someone must be able to help. I need my family."

The guy stepped forward, urging Mikey to step backwards, out of the woods. "With the rare capability to see monsters in this world, we bear the burden of dealing with the ones that are like her alone."

Mikey looked back at the woods. Horror pooled in his stomach as his hopes dashed to the ground.

"If there is a way," the guy said softly. "It is not through holding conference with her. Trust me."

There was some truth to what this guy was saying, at least - there was no way Mikey could defeat her, even with his branch. She was a powerful yokai. He was just… a scrawny kid.

Who didn't even have a home now.

Mikey looked at the sleeping Baxter Stockman on the guy's back. "What's going to happen to him?" he asked. "You saved him from her, didn't you?"

The guy breathed in deeply. "I will take him to the police station and tell them I found him passed out in the woods. I will have to tell him the truth of it, when he wakes up."

"That he doesn't have… a family anymore?"

There was nothing else to it. The guy's silence was answer enough.

This was so, so wrong.

"That _sucks_ ," Mikey said angrily. "They have so much proof. They probably have pictures, contact numbers, home videos. Even if they forgot, they can't deny that they once knew him!"

"Lady Love's magic is powerful. It causes people to make excuses of the wildest types. But he is welcome to try," the guy said softly. "As are you."

Mikey felt sick, like he was going to throw up right there.

"Lady Love hurt you too, didn't she?" he asked finally. "Whoever you are. Did your family forget you?"

The guy's face pinched together, as if remembering was not something he particularly liked. Mikey wouldn't have felt brave enough to ask if the same thing hadn't happened to him.

"Yes," The guy said.

Baxter stirred on the guy's shoulder. Mikey halted, feeling horrible for wanting to flee before he woke up. He didn't know what was in store. Mikey didn't want to be there to witness him taking in the news. Maybe he was cowardly, but this was a horrible situation!

Mikey turned to leave - but before breaking into a run to clear his mind - he paused to ask the guy for his name.

The guy smiled wryly. "I go by Leatherhead."

Mikey took off, and left the broken branch behind.

When he got to his apartment, he didn't go up the steps and inside. He sat down besides the wall of the stairs, sitting on the tail of his jacket so his butt wouldn't get soaked from the mound of snow and leaned his head on the bricks. Little kids played hopscotch in this corner usually, but the street was as empty as his mind as he stared blankly at the sidewalk.

He'd lost _everything_.

* * *

Mikey dozed off in the corner at some point, and when he woke up, it was raining, it was dark, and there were quiet voices in his dreams.

"He's been out in the freezing rain for an _hour_."

"He's a random kid, Leo. Are you serious?"

"He's _homeless_."

"I don't know, what if he's a criminal?"

"Not you _too_ , Donnie."

"Look, I'm just trying to be logical. You've got a big heart, but what if this kid takes advantage of that?"

" _Thank you_ , Don!"

"We can't just leave him out there," Leo's tone was final.

And suddenly, it wasn't a dream. Footsteps scraped on the cement stairs before there was someone in front of him. Mikey blinked, too depressed to care to lift his eyes. But then he did, and he couldn't stop staring.

Leo was crouching in front of him.

"Hey, what's your name, kid?"

Mikey just stared at Leo in shock. Did this guy seriously not remember? It was so painful to even think about it.

"Look," Leo said instead. "You'll catch a cold out here. My brothers and I have a spare bedroom you can sleep in."

 _My bedroom, you mean? With all my stuff?_ Mikey wondered how the magic had warped the logic in his brother's minds. How could they look or think about that and not realize that it had been occupied by another brother?

"Oh - okay," Mikey said quietly. Then, he grew braver. "Can I?"

"Yeah, bud. And then we can call social services first thing tomorrow morning," Leo said. "They'll get you sorted."

Okay, _that_ one hurt.

"I… I have a family," Mikey said sharply.

"Oh?" Leo's eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Aren't they looking for you?"

"I… no," Mikey's voice came out in a squeak. "Not exactly."

More than anything, Mikey wanted to shout, _It's me! Mikey! Don't you remember?_ But he really, really didn't want Leo to un-invite him from coming in. It was cold outside.

"Okay." And then Leo helped him stand up, taking him by the hand. "You're really scratched up, aren't you?"

It was then that Mikey realized how he must have looked. Beaten up and bruised from everything that had happened today, _plus_ he was sitting in the corner. He really was homeless, wasn't he?

"My name is Leo," Leo said as they climbed up the stairs. "This is Raph, and this is Donnie."

Raph and Donnie had been standing above them the whole time. Donnie gave Mikey a small smile. Raph didn't even look at him.

Mikey let Leo lead the way to the apartment.

"Do you live in this apartment building?" Leo asked. "With your family?"

"I… yeah," Mikey said. "I do."

"Is that why you ran into ours by accident?" Donnie asked.

Mikey stared at his feet. "I guess so."

What an awkward conversation! Mikey slipped out of his shoes and placed them in his usual spot on the shoe rack without prompting, earning curious looks from Leo and Donnie.

"So," Leo said, clapping his hands together. "Would you like to have something to eat?"

Mikey stared at Leo. He wasn't sure he could work up an appetite. How was one supposed to eat after having their life uprooted by a _stupid evil spider?_

Mikey nodded wordlessly at Leo. It was strangely quiet in the apartment, so unlike the usual atmosphere. Donnie moved into the living room, supposedly to turn on the TV. Raph crossed his arms and sized Mikey up, leaning on the door. Mikey looked at his hotheaded older brother for a total of half a second before he shriveled under the intensity of his gaze.

 _So this must be what meeting Raph for the first time must feel like,_ Mikey thought, observing the way Raph's coldness was an indirect way of protecting Leo and Donnie from strangers.

"I'm sorry for being a burden," Mikey said, finally remembering some manners. If he was making a first impression with his brothers, he didn't want to be 'that bratty homeless kid Leo took in one time'. The least he could do was say thank you. He did so, and Leo's response was immediate.

"It's no burden, and you're welcome," Leo said from the kitchen as he grabbed a bowl for Mikey. Raph rolled his eyes.

"If you really live in the apartment, why have I never seen you before?" Raph asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Raph." Leo's tone was warning.

"What? I'm just asking," Raph said. "What number is your apartment?"

Well, Mikey couldn't answer _that_ one truthfully. He felt panic rising within him. He really didn't want to be called a con artist and kicked out to the curb.

" _Raph_ , honestly," Leo scolded. To Mikey, "We have soup. Do you also want some chicken Parmesan?"

Mikey shook his head. "S-soup is fine," he said, teeth chattering. He hadn't noticed how cold he'd gotten.

"Oh, you're chilled to the bone," Leo said in realization. "Wait, hold the soup. Take a hot shower. Bathroom's down the hallway on the left. I'll grab a spare towel and some spare clothes. I think we might have some your size…"

"Oh, really? Now we're a freaking Air BnB?" Raph asked in a low voice that was just within earshot of Mikey.

Leo shot him a glare before ushering Mikey down the hallway. He opened the bathroom door and turned on the lights.

"Just a moment, let me grab you some clothes," Leo said, slipping across the hallway to what used to be Mikey's room.

Mikey was grateful, and surprised by Leo's hospitality for essentially, a stranger. He'd always known his oldest brother was kind, but seeing him from an outsider's perspective… Leo was like their father, in a _lot_ of ways. This kind of selfless compassion was something Mikey had seen in Hamato Yoshi. Who knew Leo was so much like him?

Just the thought brought tears to his eyes.

And once the tears came, the floodgates opened. Mikey yanked his hoodie over his head just as Leo returned, to hide his face.

"Hey, here's some dry clothes and a towel. I'll place them here, okay?"

He was so _nice_. Mikey put on his brave face and pulled the rest of the hoodie off, dropping his tired arms into his lap.

"Thanks, Leo," Mikey said softly.

Leo seemed to falter for a fraction of a second, then shook himself out of it. "Of course," he said with a little smile. Then his eyes fell on Mikey's arms, which were littered in scrapes and slightly dark bruises. The sheer force of the webs had left their impressions on his arms.

"How did you get hurt?" Leo asked, eyes wide.

"I… fell," Mikey replied. If his brothers didn't remember him, did that mean they didn't know about yokai? He _had_ fallen down, though.

Leo pressed his lips together in a straight line disbelievingly. "Alright. Dinner will be on the table when you get out."

Mikey took a hot shower, realizing that he'd taken a shower this morning already. Gosh, had that really been today? It felt like a long time had passed. He turned off the water and wrapped himself in a towel before stepping out. Slipping into the clothes Leo had picked for him - a pair of shorts and an orange T-shirt - Mikey took a look at himself in the mirror.

He looked… awful.

His eyes were tired and puffy. The bruises on his body were more pronounced, but worst of all, the juncture of his neck and shoulder. _Owie_.

Tenderly, Mikey pulled back the neckline of the sleeveless shirt he was wearing, he saw where Lady Love had bit him.

It looked _animalistic_. The raw red teeth marks had sliced through skin like Mikey was a chunk of meat. Part of it looked bloody, but the skin had formed over it. And it _hurt_. Just thinking about it, being aware of it, seemed to make it throb.

Wow. Nope. He let go of the shirt and tried not to think about that. One trauma at a time, right?

Mikey came out of the bathroom, hair damp as he walked back to the dining table in front of his soup, which was steaming hot, thanks to Leo.

Raph had retreated to his room. Leo and Donnie sat in the living room, watching television. Donnie smiled at Mikey, his eyes warmer and more welcoming than they'd been before. What had Leo told him while Mikey was in the shower?

 _Oh man,_ Mikey thought. _They must be wondering about my bruises. I really do look suspicious, don't I?_

Mikey thanked Leo for the soup when he was done. He was going to wash his bowl, but Leo simply took it from him. Donnie showed Mikey his room. Mikey plopped down in his pile of pillows.

"Thank you," he said to Donnie.

"No problem. So, do you have a name?" Donnie asked, leaning on the wall and looking down at him.

"Michelangelo."

One of Donnie's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Hm?" Mikey looked at him, bewildered.

"Or it's a crazy coincidence," Donnie muttered under his breath. "Never mind. I didn't expect you to have the name of an artist from the Renaissance. Good night, Michelangelo."

Mikey swallowed. Was he really, entirely gone from their minds?

_Yes. Yes, they are. Why do I keep asking myself this._

As Donnie turned, Mikey's eyes landed on a picture frame on the nightstand. He sat up with a jolt, an idea coming into his mind.

"Wait," he said, and Donnie looked back. Pointing to the picture, he asked, "Do you remember this person?"

The picture was of all of them, before their father had passed away. Yoshi stood in the back, his arms around the shoulders of Leo and Raph. Donnie crouched in the middle, his arms hugging Mikey. Everyone had big grins on their faces. It was taken a little over two years ago, in front of a restaurant and a gorgeous sunset.

Donnie picked the picture and looked at it. "That's me and my family," he said simply.

"But that little boy in the middle, the one who you're hugging," Mikey insisted.

Donnie glanced at the picture again, but didn't look like he saw anything abnormal. "It's just a friend, I guess," he said with a shrug, as if it made sense at the time and now it didn't bother him.

"But you said it was your family," Mikey argued.

Donnie looked at Mikey in confusion. "Yeah. Still is."

"So how can you forget about that person in the middle?"

"He wasn't part of the family. I don't even remember meeting him."

The words hit like ice, spoken so casually from Donnie's lips. Leatherhead had been right. Lady Love's magic twisted people's sense of _logic_.

The door opened to reveal Raph standing there.

"You guys are being loud," he said. His eyes landed on Mikey. "Look. My room is the closest to yours, the walls are thin, so don't make noise and don't bother me. 'Kay?"

" _Raph_ ," Donnie said in a very Leo-like way.

Raph raised his eyebrows and shrugged, as if he were saying, ' _Am I wrong?_ ' as he slipped back out the door.

"Sorry," Mikey called. "Good night."

"Don't mind him," Donnie said. "Good night, Michelangelo."

Donnie slipped out the door. Mikey slumped back into his bed. He knew he wasn't supposed to eavesdrop, but he could hear his brother's voices from the kitchen pretty well through the vents. He leaned over the side of the bed.

"Good work being so rude to the poor boy, Raph," Donnie was drawling sarcastically.

"Hey, I don't trust random strangers at the drop of a hat like Leo, okay? And I thought you were on my side." That was Raph.

Mikey heard Leo sigh. Donnie's next words were hushed, but intentional. "Look, he's gone through something pretty bad. We know he lives in the apartments - "

" _Do_ we, though?"

"Raph, go into a corner and text Mona until your mood's improved," Leo said, annoyed. "You had a good date with her. Why the venom?"

 _Right, Raph's date with Mona,_ Mikey remembered. So that meant Raph's grumpy attitude was because of _him_. Great.

Raph grumbled, "Something's just off about him, is all."

_Yeah. A LOT of things are off about me! Because you all forgot I exist!_

"Anyway, his name is Michelangelo," Donnie said.

Leo and Raph went silent at that.

"Sure looks like a sign," Leo murmured. At Raph's scoff, he added, "Look, tomorrow I'll call social services and let them know, okay? If he has something heavy he's dealing with in his home life, there are professionals who can remove him from any abuse."

Oh. Oh, dear. They thought he was being abused? Mikey flushed, feeling guilty as anything for making them think that and practically taking advantage of them.

"And then someone better will adopt him."

This was all too much.

Mikey rolled away from the side of the bed that was closer to the vent, and pulled the covers up to his chin.

 _Please let all of this have been a dream when I wake up,_ he prayed.

He let the feeling of hopelessness consume him.

* * *

It was sunny.

Bundled in his father's soft robes, he ran out the back door of their living room and out into the sand of the beach, letting them flare behind him like a superhero cape. This was their home a long, long time ago, when the boys had a mother and they lived by the ocean.

"Papa!" Mikey called out, and distantly he realized his voice was high-pitched, babyish. He was a little child once again, three years old, running clumsily and tripping face-first into Raph and Donnie's sand castle.

They grumbled at him. Even at 6 and 7, Donnie had been particular about his projects, and Raph had just been a hothead, respectively. Mikey squirmed off of the province he'd destroyed and continued his waddle to his father, who stood by the sea with 9-year-old Leo, speaking in gentle tones, showing him how the light reflected off the waves in the distance —

And then the ocean fell away and Mikey wasn't so little anymore. He was turning 12 tomorrow, and he was standing in the living room, staring at his motionless father slumped in his recliner in an unnatural way.

"Dad," Mikey whispered from the corner of the living room he stood in. "Dad, wake up."

The room filled with flashes of reds and blues and screaming sirens. Then they were in the hospital, and Mikey was running down the hall, after the nurses and first responders that were carting his father away.

"Dad!" Mikey screamed. Why could no one _hear_ him? " _Papa!_ "

Horrible emotions rained down on him, crushing him, torturing him. Mikey suddenly felt himself surrounded by water, and he was drowning. Blue turned inky black as Mikey sank. He kicked and kicked, trying to move upwards, but it was no use. Sorrow consumed him.

* * *

His cheeks were wet when he regained consciousness.

" _Papa_ ," Mikey gasped, pushing his arms out wildly, still stuck in the nightmare's remnants. " _Papa_."

"Hey, you're okay," a voice said, shaking his shoulder gently. "You're gonna be okay, kid."

Mikey realized that he was crying, his breath ragged as all sorts of grief attacked him. Losing his father. Losing all of his brothers. With tears already slipping out, the floodgates opened up.

Mikey turned his face into his pillow to muffle the sounds of his sobs, but it only proved effective in sending his lungs into a horrible, hiccuping state. He tried to get control over his lungs, to be able to let air in and out without making any noise, but it proved to be futile, as he began hyperventilating and crying at the same time.

It was Raph who was at his bedside, Mikey realized, as the light of the lamp by his bedside was turned on.

"S-s-sorry!" Mikey stammered through his tears. "I - I didn't m-m-mean to -"

He was a master of eloquence and grace.

"Alright, don't hurt yourself," Raph said. "I just came over here to check on you. You were crying and yelling in your sleep."

Mikey sniffed, his breaths coming up short.

"I can go get Leo or Donnie for you," Raph muttered, sounding embarrassed.

"No, don't go," Mikey blurted selfishly, grabbing part of Raph's shirt.

"Alright, then," Raph said, looking surprised. He settled on the floor, his back to the wall. "So you… wanna talk about it?"

Mikey swallowed, and nodded.

"You were shouting about your... dad," Raph said quietly. "Did he…?"

"Heart attack," Mikey murmured.

Raph stilled. Mikey knew Raph was thinking about their father now, too. Except Raph didn't think Mikey's father and his father were the same person.

"Our dad passed away that way, too," Raph muttered.

"Sometimes, I think my brain wants me to keep reliving it," Mikey said, and his voice cracked. His body shook the whole bed as sobs took over.

It was so weird. Out of all the things Mikey had seen and been through today, _this_ was what brought the onslaught of tears. Missing his dad. His nightmares had for some reason, chosen to pick his father as appropriate subject material at the end of a day like _this_. Then again, this wasn't the first time. Mikey had been having his dreams turn into nightmares of the day their father died for _months_ , hadn't he?

His mind just kept going back there.

"Me, too," Raph said, and this made Mikey lift his face from the pillows. Raph had nightmares about it, too?

"How… how do you get over it?"

"Time," Raph said. Then he smirked. "At least, that's what they all say. Right? Time heals all wounds."

"It happens two years ago," Mikey whispered. "And I know it's fine to feel sad once in a while. But today… today _sucked_. Everything about today sucked. And tomorrow's going to suck, too. And the day after. And it won't _stop sucking._ "

"No, don't say that. Not everything has to suck," Raph replied, with the afterthought of, "God, I sound like Leo."

" _That's easy for you to say!_ " Mikey cried, making Raph's eyes widen. "You don't know what this is like! This hurts!"

The door opened cautiously, revealing a Leo and Donnie in their pajamas. Leo blinked, looking at the two of them. Mikey could only imagine how much of a mess he looked like right now.

"Raph, what did you say to him to make him cry?" Donnie asked accusingly.

"Look," Raph said, ignoring Donnie and looking straight at Mikey. "You asked me how to get over it. I don't have a good answer, because I guess everyone's got their own way of coping. But someone once told me that you have to hold on to the good you have in your life, and celebrate them."

From the way Raph said it, and the way Leo's eyes crinkled warmly, Mikey could guess who that someone was.

Mikey stared at his brothers. Leo, Raph, and Donnie stood by, familiar and estranged at the same time. It was a no brainer, what the _good_ was in Mikey's life.

After they'd lost their dad, making friends stopped being a default in Mikey's system. People didn't just pop up to sit next to him in class or at lunch anymore. It was what made seventh grade so hard to deal with. It was why Mikey shied away from dances, which he used to _love_. But slowly, hadn't something happened? Bradford, Xever, and Fong had been nice to him. They were _weird_ , but they were good. And Casey! He was good, too. Renet and Klunk were _really_ good.

Nothing, however, was more _good_ in Mikey's life than Leo, Raph, and Donnie, who had gathered around him, even though he was a stranger to them. They were good.

Even if Mikey was never remembered by them, he'd make sure to keep them in his life. He'd make sure of it. He would befriend them and _never_ stop bothering them, nonstop! Even if he didn't live with them anymore. Even if he was taken in by the nicest people ever! He'd hang onto Leo, Raph, and Donnie. He'd taken them for granted before today. But from now on, he'd make sure to celebrate them.

It still hurt, though. Tears rolled down Mikey's face as he stared at them.

He loved them, so, _so_ much.

Leo and Donnie kneeled down besides him.

"Mikey," Raph said suddenly, a hand coming out to rub his back. "C'mon buddy, just breathe. Whatever it is, it'll be okay."

"No, it won't," Mikey laughed through his tears. "I won't be okay without you guys!"

 _So much for my inner monologue,_ he thought. _I don't want to say goodbye._

"Who says we're going anywhere?" Raph asked, his voice low and hushed, his hand rubbing Mikey's back in soothing up-and-down motions. "It's okay, little brother."

Mikey stilled. "What did you just say?" he whispered.

But Raph was frozen. So were Leo and Donnie. Their eyes were wide and glassy looking for a few seconds. It felt like the world had stopped moving.

"G-guys?" Mikey asked nervously.

Slowly, like falling snow, his brothers seemed to take Mikey in for the first time.

"Oh my gosh," Donnie breathed out. " _Mikey_."

Mikey sat up slowly, hardly daring to believe it. Raph's eyebrows were furrowed, staring at the blankets as his thoughts caught up to him. Donnie's hand was suddenly in his hair, pushing it back out of his eyes.

There were tears in Donnie's eyes as he used his sleeve to wipe at Mikey's face.

"You remember?" Mikey asked timidly.

"I can't believe I couldn't… I saw you in that picture, b-but it was like you weren't _loading_ into my brain all this time," Donnie whispered. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't understand why I couldn't remember something so important. You're my only little brother."

Raph swore. "Who the _hell_ messed with our heads?" he demanded into the room.

Mikey's head spun. He couldn't keep himself up on his poor bruised limbs. "There was a yokai that attacked me today and she bit me and everyone forgot about me and I was _so_ scared," was all he could get out before breaking down. "Please don't let this be a dream that I'm having."

Leo dropped to his knees besides the bed, looking scared. He never looked scared. His eyes were watery as he stared at Mikey.

"Leo?" Mikey said in a tiny voice, reaching for him automatically.

"You're my littlest brother," Leo said, all choked up. Mikey looked into his deep blue eyes, and even with the dim lighting, he found home. Leo said it again, with more conviction. "You're my _baby_."

Donnie moved aside, and Mikey all but fell into his arms, his tears coming out again despite Donnie drying them a minute ago. Leo's arms scooped around him, holding him close enough so that their foreheads were touching.

Mikey let out a sigh of relief, and let his eyes close, his upper body practically being held up by Leo. He felt Raph lean over and rub his back, in that familiar, needed up-and-down motion. He felt Donnie rest some of his weight over his legs in a way that was so comfortable.

 _How?_ A small voice in Mikey's head shouted. _How did they suddenly remember?_

He didn't have a single clue.

But answers could wait.

"Where were you bit?" Donnie asked after a quiet spell.

"Mm?" Lost in the comfort of being held, Mikey took a moment. He opened his eyes. "Oh. Here."

Normally, Mikey always made his injuries seem like they weren't as bad as they were, in order to shield himself from the overreactions of his big brothers. But the day had been scary, and all Mikey wanted was his brothers. He didn't care if they swaddled him up and made a huge deal out of everything so long as they knew who he was.

Mikey's gesture prompted Leo to reach over and pull back the shirt's neckline. For a moment, there was silence.

 _Maybe he can't see it because it's a yokai who bit me,_ Mikey realized suddenly.

But when Mikey opened his mouth to tell Leo so, he found himself snapping his mouth shut.

Leo's eyes were electric, furious.

_Oh, never mind, I guess he can._

"Tell me who did this," he said.

Mikey immediately grabbed at Leo's shoulders. "No!" he shouted. "I don't want her to hurt you, too."

Leo's hands came around him, pulling him into a tight hug. Mikey thought he was trembling, but after a second, realized that it was _him_. He was scared of Lady Love.

" _Her?_ " Donnie echoed darkly.

"I thought… I thought that Klunk was the only one in this city," Leo said.

"Well, we found another one. It was in the woods," Mikey muttered. "I'm sorry. It was stupid to go in to find her… but she'd kidnapped someone. I didn't think I'd actually find her."

"We've got to find answers to this yokai nonsense," Raph said, his voice shaking in fury. "This isn't some little game anymore. This is playing with lives. Messing with our _heads_."

"Yeah. Mikey, listen," Leo said, pulling away from Mikey just enough to meet his eyes. Mikey longed for Leo just as soon as he pulled away a few inches. "I need you to stop looking for yokai for a good while. Okay?"

Mikey laughed shakily. "Trust me, dude. You couldn't pay me enough to do that. I need a vacation."

"What we need is more information," Donnie said. "Some kind of manual. Why don't we know more about this?"

"We all need some sleep, first," Leo said softly.

Mikey clutched Leo's midsection and didn't let go. He didn't care if he seemed like a wuss. Leo let out a little laugh from the wordless affection.

"I'm not letting go of you, either," Leo said, kissing him atop the head.

No one else seemed to have any plans of that, either. They all got settled on Mikey's bed, which was a fun little squish for four people on a single twin, but they managed, draping over each other. Mikey buried his face into Leo's collarbone.

"Sleep tight, little brother," Leo said softly.

Just then, someone's phone promptly blew up, buzzing like it had been saving it for this very moment. All four brothers jumped.

"Who is that?" Raph grumbled.

"Mine," Mikey exclaimed, reaching over Leo to grab his phone off the nightstand. He saw who it was, and beamed, his heart racing.

Renet had texted him at least 30 times, and they were still coming in, asking if she could call and if he was okay and that she was so incredibly sorry that she forgot him. He texted her back quickly.

 _I'm okay,_ he wrote. _Everything's fine now!_

Renet's response was immediate. _Oh thank god._

Mikey let out a sigh of relief. _Let's meet up tomorrow at Mr. Murakami's. Lunch?_ he texted her. At the same time, Renet had sent him, _We need to talk about what happened! Can we meet up tomorrow?_

There was a pause, and Renet added, in reply to him, _Yes! I'll be there! I'm really sorry about forgetting you, Mikey._

_Stop apologizing, it's okay!_

_I'm still really sorry!_

Mikey grinned despite himself. Despite the day. Despite how scary everything had been.

Leo watched him, smiling softly. "You look happy. Who turned on your sunshine, baby?"

"Renet," Mikey answered without hesitation. Then he felt incredibly embarrassed. Thankfully, his brothers didn't tease him, not even Raph.

Mikey set his phone down, and snuggled into Leo's arms, with Raph and Donnie draped on his other side. He closed his eyes. Leo's fingers came up to settle in his hair. Raph broke into quiet snores. Donnie's arm swung around Mikey's torso, effectively using him as a pillow.

Mikey held on to them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading about these characters that I have so much fun writing into niche universes :) Let me know what you thought!  
> Also, up next is some nice closure and explanation! *sips coffee* WOOOO


	4. finally saturday, chocolate twizzlers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ Things have been pretty crazy, please take care of yourselves. Wishing you and your loved ones good health! ~ 
> 
> Hello friends! Here it is, last chapter. Thank you for reading this far, I really enjoyed reading the comments! :)

* * *

The first thing that happened on Saturday was that Renet pounced on Mikey like a cat on a yarn ball in Mr. Murakami's.

"MIKEY!"

Well, _okay_. It wasn't exactly the _first_ thing. But it was pretty much what woke Mikey up from the warm and blissfully lazy morning he was having, kick-starting his Saturday.

Mikey's day had started with him being _showered_ with attention from his brothers, because apparently getting bit by a powerful yokai who made other people's memories of him disappear made him _very_ popular in the Hamato household. Leo had made a special breakfast of pancakes in the shape of cat faces, topping them with a heapful of syrup and whipped cream, which was _awesome_. Donnie had patched up his bite with some ointment and the super large Band-aids that were usually reserved for Raph and his specific slew of injuries, which was exciting in its own way. And thanks to the guilt that Raph felt, Mikey had wheedled in a lot of favors from him, including but not limited to having pizza for dinner and a movie night for all four of them. Although, to be fair, persuading Mikey's brothers for Saturday pizza nights was never a big challenge.

He hadn't, however, been able to convince his brothers to let him go to Mr. Murakami's alone. From the looks of it, it seemed like there was a new Hamato law, set in place by Leo: _make sure Mikey isn't alone, at all times_. Not that he minded much.

That's why all four Hamato brothers were at Mr. Murakami's, which was bustling with activity for lunch. Casey was busing tables, now that he worked at Mr. Murakami's part-time. He'd shot Mikey a grin when he'd seen him enter. The news played from the old television set by the wall, in the corner by the heater. Laughter and chatter filled the restaurant. Leo and Raph had just gone up to the counter to order something when Mikey heard Renet.

He had just barely stood up before Renet was giving him the mother of all hugs, squeezing him with all her strength. Mikey could barely feel his ribs.

"You're okay!" Renet cheered, tightening her hold on him even more.

" _Can't breathe_ ," Mikey rasped. From somewhere behind him, he heard Donnie chuckling into his mug of coffee.

"Oops! Sorry," Renet said, letting him go. "I have so much to ask you - "

At the same time, Mikey said, "I have so much to _tell_ you - "

They broke off and laughed. Renet saw his brother. "Hi, Donnie."

"Hello Renet, how are you?" Donnie asked gesturing for her to take a seat.

"I'm _way_ better this morning," Renet admitted. "Yesterday was weird."

Klunk jumped into Mikey's lap, so he mindlessly scratching between the cat yokai's feathery wings. "You can say _that_ again. Or write it in Sharpie. Or maybe carve it into stone somewhere."

Mikey earned a little laughter, but the mood was thick. It was as if there was a loaded tension burdening in the air. Not especially from Donnie, but from Renet. She was looking at Mikey differently, as if memorizing his face and features, soaking in the details of his presence.

Then she took a deep breath. "Mikey, I am so sor-,"

"Not your fault! So don't say it," Mikey insisted.

Renet shook her head. "I remember your face from when you realized that I had no idea who you were. It makes me feel awful now, knowing how you must have felt. Friends don't forget friends."

"It's all forgiven if one of those friends gets chomped on by a yokai ghost thing!"

Renet's face paled upon seeing Mikey's big Band-aid. Mikey told her everything - from the point in time that he'd been bitten, to everyone forgetting him, and then him going home and coming back to meet Leatherhead, then going home and everyone remembering.

"So that's what happened," Mikey told her in a much more casual tone than he would have been able to make twelve hours ago.

Renet had to take a moment to digest all that, but then she was giving him what she knew. "Baxter's back too, by the way!"

"With his family?"

"I heard from my mom, who knows his mom. The story they're going with is that Baxter ran away and then came back," Renet said with an incredulous shrug. "It happened last night."

"Same time as my case," Mikey whispered.

"Coincidence?" Renet asked in a low tone.

"Can't be," Mikey responded.

"So what _happened_? One minute I'm brushing my teeth, and the next, I remember you again!"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Donnie said from across the table, getting their attention. "Considering there was another case similar to Mikey's… that means there must have been a bigger force at work."

Mikey snapped his fingers. "Something _we_ didn't do."

"Right. But that could literally be anything, given the fact that we don't know much about how all this works," Donnie said.

Mikey smiled despite himself, watching his brainiac of a big brother frown and try to figure it out. Maybe he was still running on leftover giddiness from the huge relief of last night. He was _really_ grateful he had his brothers and a home again.

Leo and Raph came back to their seats.

"We just told Casey our order," Raph said. "So if you get the wrong thing, you know who to blame it on."

"Hey, Renet," Leo greeted amicably. "How are you?"

"Good, thanks," Renet said, sitting up straight at the sight of the head of the Hamato family. "Sorry I just barged in on your table. I won't stay long."

"You kidding? You're welcome to sit and eat with us," Leo said.

"Oh, no, you don't have to, like, oblige me."

"Aw, c'mon. You know it's not like that, Renet. It's more like we're obliging _these_ three," Mikey told Renet in an exaggerated whisper, making her giggle.

Klunk's wings stretched out, knocking over a glass of water just then. Renet's hand immediately shot out, but Donnie had faster reflexes and caught it.

"What was-," Raph started, just as Mikey apologized, pushing Klunk's wing out of the way.

Klunk squirmed and for a moment Mikey thought that he was going to jump out of his lap to stretch more properly, but then Klunk curled himself inwards before making himself more comfortable on Mikey's thighs.

Leo's eyes were sharp. "Is Klunk with you right now?"

Mikey lowered his hand slowly. "Yes?"

"Mikey," Leo said warily. But whatever argument he was going to start, he didn't.

"Anyway," Donnie said, "We were just talking about what happened last night."

Leo's face took on that disturbed and worried look again. Raph scowled. Renet lowered her eyes to the table.

 _They probably feel so violated,_ Mikey thought. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if someone reached into his mind and pulled out something important. What if he had forgotten about his brothers? Mikey wasn't sure how he would even be the same person without the memories of them.

"Order up, Hamatos!" Casey called from the counter. They all looked up to see him with two trays of food.

"I'll get it!" Mikey said, jumping up.

He hurried over to the counter.

"Mikey, your brother's terrible," Casey told him dutifully.

Mikey nodded, like this was expected. "Raph over-complicate the order for you again?"

"You know it," Casey said. He frowned at something over Mikey's shoulder, and Mikey turned to see Klunk sticking his face into another table that already had food. "I love your guys' weird cat, but can you get him off the table?"

"Klunk, down boy," Mikey called.

Klunk's ears twitched, as if hearing his name, but otherwise ignored him. Casey groaned.

"Sorry," Mikey said with a small smile. "You're not the only one who isn't a fan of Klunk right now. Or any yokai, for that matter. Leo's wants me to be more careful."

"Did something… _supernatural_ happen?"

"You got that right. It all happened on Valentine's Day," Mikey said. "You didn't, like, randomly forget about me yesterday, did you?"

"What?" Casey frowned. "No? I mean, I wasn't thinking about you."

" _Interesting_."

"What - does that _offend_ you, man?"

Mikey laughed. "No."

Casey smiled, but still looked confused.

"It's a long story," Mikey said. "And we don't -" He broke off, staring at the TV. It was displaying an reporter standing in front of some blackened trees, but it was the headline of the story that she was covering, at the bottom of the screen, that got his attention.

"Casey!" Mikey exclaimed. "Turn up the volume!"

Casey looked at him bewildered for a millisecond, but then grabbed the remote from his side of the counter and turned it up.

"Yeah, I'm here in the woods behind Eastman Middle School," the reporter said. "It seems as if there was a fire set last night at this scene, burning down these large and old trees. The fire was seen and reported by passing civilians last evening around midnight last night."

Mikey felt his gut drop down in his stomach as he heard the news. Distantly, he heard Raph call to him. Mikey's eyes remained glued to the television.

"The level of ash indicates that these trees were completely burned to the ground in what authorities are calling a _freak forest fire_ \- as it was an isolated, contained event. The other trees nearby haven't even been singed."

"I can't believe this," Mikey whispered. "They're… gone."

"What's gone?" Casey asked. "Oh, crap. The middle school confession trees?"

As the reporter went on to talk about how the trees around the area were more than fifty years old, Mikey ran through his thoughts. Someone had burned the trees last night. The same trees connected to Lady Love. Did that mean… was Lady Love destroyed, too?

What could have caused _that_?

Wait.

 _Leatherhead_.

It couldn't be, could it? Mikey felt a presence behind him. He turned to see Renet, who'd come up to him. His brothers were still at the table, watching the news as well.

"No way," Renet said, her eyes bugging out. "That's where we were yesterday."

"You guys burned the confession trees down?" Casey asked in shock.

"No!" Renet said. "We were - it's a long story."

"Why do you keep calling them that?" Mikey asked, taking his eyes off the television to glance at Casey.

Casey raised an eyebrow. "You don't know the story of Lady Love?"

"I mean, sure," Mikey said with a shrug. "Everyone knows that she used to go to the school and then she died and that's why she haunts the woods."

"Yeah, but do you know how she died?"

"No," Mikey and Renet said.

Casey leaned in dramatically. "They say," he said in a low voice, "That she was a typical schoolgirl back in the day. She fell in love with a weird classmate who collected spiders and made them fight each other to the death."

Mikey shuddered. Renet gasped. Casey grinned and went on.

"She confessed her undying love for him under those very trees, and they started going out. Then, she mysteriously disappeared a few weeks later. They found her body in those very woods, _dead as a doornail_. When doing the autopsy, her body was covered in spider bites. But not just any normal bites, no. These spiders were _vicious_. They'd been drinking her _blood_ ," Casey said, his voice getting lower and scarier for effect. "So basically, this guy fed his girlfriend to his pet spiders."

Renet clamped her hands over her ears. "NOoooooOOOo," she cried. "Enough creepy stuff! I don't want to hear this!"

Mikey felt light-headed and felt like throwing up. Casey immediately snapped out of it, swearing under his breath.

"Sorry! Sorry! Oh, man, I didn't know you'd be _actually_ scared. _Crap_."

Mikey's hand went to his neck, over the Band-aid, and tried to get the image out of his mind. So when Lady Love had died… she'd come back, part spider, part girl. Hungry for love.

If Mikey hadn't felt so woozy, he might have been able to appreciate the thematic consistency of it all.

Collecting himself, Mikey laughed to ward away the guilty looks Casey was throwing them. "I guess ghost stories are a lot spookier when you've actually seen the ghost."

Casey did a double take at that. "You're kidding. You guys _saw_ Lady Love?"

Renet cleared her throat, and started telling him the recap of what had happened yesterday. How they'd skipped the Valentine's Day Dance and gone into the woods.

Mikey shuddered without meaning to. He could still feel the way Lady Love had touched him, talking softly. Nothing about her was terrifying when she'd been gentle, but at the same time, it was so unsettling. Mikey had felt so unsafe, so hopeless.

Casey's mouth was open by the time Renet got to the part about Lady Love trapping them and then later biting Mikey.

"I know it's the middle of the day, but I'm really freaked out just thinking about it," Renet said, blinking away tears before they came down. Her voice shook. "Lady Love was scary. Yesterday was a whole bunch of bad. I've been seeing yokai pretty much my whole life, and I've never seen one that powerful or malicious."

"Do you guys need to… I mean, see someone about this?" Casey asked quietly, no teasing in his voice.

"Who could we see? We don't know anyone who knows more than we do," Renet said.

"Maybe we do," Mikey said slowly. "What about Leatherhead?"

"Who?" Casey asked.

"The hunter," Renet said. "The guy who saved us, and the Baxter kid. Lady Love called him a hunter."

"Sick. There's a yokai hunter?"

"Yeah," Mikey said. "If anyone has answers, it's him."

"We don't know where he came from, or where he went," Renet said. "Or if he's from here or not."

"We don't know anything," Mikey agreed.

" _I_ don't know why you're taking so long to bring our food over to the table," Raph said, walking up to them.

"Sorry," Mikey said, still distracted as he turned back around to help Raph.

"What were you guys talking about?" Raph asked. "Casey, get back to work."

"Wow, absolutely _not_ , Raph."

Raph just snickered as they returned to their seats.

"What took you so long?" Donnie asked.

Mikey grabbed a bowl of noodles. "Someone burned down the trees," he said. "That's how it broke the curse, or whatever you want to call it. I think someone might have destroyed Lady Love."

Leo, Raph, and Donnie froze, taking in this information.

"Was that what was on the news?" Raph asked, shocked. "The place where you kids were hanging out yesterday _burned down?_ "

"Just the old trees that everyone in middle school uses as a place to carve their initials into," Mikey said.

"That's the outside factor that broke the curse," Donnie realized in a hush. "The destruction of a yokai or a location that it inhabits. Theory still to be further investigated."

"No more investigating yokai," Leo said. "Not even Klunk, for that matter."

"Not even Klunk?" Mikey asked, blinking.

Leo shook his head. "Not even Klunk. I'm sorry Mikey, but all this yokai stuff just is too dangerous."

"But Klunk's not even _mine_ ," Mikey said.

Leo's eyes landed on Renet. In a voice that wasn't at all harsh, he said, "Renet, I don't want to be that guy, but is there something that can be done about Klunk being around you two all the time?"

Renet straightened automatically. "Yessir. I'll… uh…"

"She can't get _rid_ of Klunk!" Mikey said in shock.

"Not what I was saying," Leo said. "I was merely suggesting you two distance yourselves from him."

"O-of course, I understand," Renet said, turning to look at Klunk. "Uh…"

Klunk just stared at her, as if challenging her.

"Leo," Mikey said sharply. "You're basically telling Renet to _give up_ her pet cat."

Renet mumbled " _He's not really my pet_ " but it went mostly unheard.

"That is a yokai," Leo said sternly. "I don't want you around him."

Mikey bit back his retort. He didn't want to cause a scene in front of Renet, but what Leo was doing was so _uncool_.

"I should be getting back home," Renet said. "We'll hang out soon, Mikey. Without Klunk. It's probably a good idea for a while."

Mikey looked at her in surprise. "You sure you don't want to have lunch with us?"

"My mom's made something at home," Renet said, Klunk rising to follow her. "But don't looks so down, Mikey. We solved a mystery today! Yay!"

"Arguably, we didn't solve squat," Mikey said with a grin.

"Arguably, we sort of _did_ ," Renet called cheerfully in a sing-song voice, waving as she left.

Renet disappeared out of view, and Mikey and his brothers ate their lunch together, different topics threading into the air. The topic of yokai was, for now, gracefully pushed underneath a metaphorical carpet.

Mikey, however was getting an idea. His curiosity was sparked. If he wanted more answers, Leatherhead was the one to ask. Technically, that wasn't breaking one of Leo's rules. He wasn't investigating yokai if he was investigating a yokai _hunter_.

Loophole, baby.

But that would be the plan for a later time.

* * *

At the end of the day, Mikey brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. He was about to climb under his covers when Leo popped into his room.

"Hey," Leo said. "All ready for bed?"

"Yeah," Mikey said, breaking into a huge yawn.

"About Klunk…"

"I _know_ ," Mikey said, raising his hands as he flopped back into his pillows. "You think he's not safe. I get it, it's fair of you to think that after everything that's happened."

Leo sat down next to him on the bed. "I just want you to be careful."

"Right. No more hanging around Klunk. He's really not even a _pet_ , he's too much of a free spirit. Heh. Get it?" Mikey said, looking away with a forced smile.

"Hey, look at me."

Mikey looked at him. Leo's eyes were patient and calm and full of love.

"Just until we find out more. I love you so much, you know that?"

"I love _you_."

Leo leaned down to hug him, and Mikey clung onto Leo like a monkey before letting go and getting tucked in.

"Good night, Leo," Mikey called as his brother closed his door after him.

"Night, Mikey."

Mikey closed his eyes, and then opened them, grabbing his phone off the nightstand.

 _Hey, you up?_ He texted Renet.

She responded immediately. _Hi. Yes!_

Mikey's fingers hovered over the screen, wondering what to say to her. Finally, he decided on calling her.

Renet picked up. "Hi, Mi-"

"I'm sorry my brother told you to get rid of Klunk. That wasn't fair to you!" he said in a low voice, as to not alert his brothers.

He could hear Renet sigh from the other side. "He's not wrong, Mikey. I'm sort of weirded out by the yokai world. If Klunk flew away for a little bit, I'd be okay with that."

"But you love Klunk."

There was a long moment before Renet replied.

"Yes, but I'm spooked a little. He's a nice yokai and I know that his worst attack is his farts, but it's like after you watch a scary movie and then you're afraid of every little think in your house."

"Where is he right now?" Mikey asked.

"He's in my room, licking his butt."

Mikey almost laughed, but he could hear the tiredness in his friend's voice. "Are you scared of him?"

"I'm… I don't know what I am. Cautious? Leo wasn't wrong, Mikey," Renet said. "And I got complacent, too. I know that yokai aren't all nice."

"Renet - "

"Maybe Klunk's desensitized us, though. Maybe we just assumed we'd be safe since he's safe."

"Renet."

"I've been seeing them my whole life, so I should have been able to keep you away from danger. I should have seen the red flags."

"Don't do that. Please."

"I'm just saying."

"Well, _stop_ just saying. This isn't on you! If anything, it's on me. I'm sorry I ruined your Valentine's Day."

"Oh, come off of it -"

"I know you probably wanted to go to the dance."

" _What?_ No," Renet said, and Mikey could hear her laugh.

"But you were telling me about the chocolate fountain and the Twizzlers," Mikey protested. "How can you not be upset about something so awesome?"

"Oh, please. I don't care about the dance! I like Mikey adventures better!”

Mikey felt his heart swell. "And I like Renet adventures.”

" _Aww_ ," they both said over the phone, then laughed.

"I meant to give you something on Valentine's Day, but then we got distracted," Renet said. "You know how you love chocolate and I like Twizzlers?"

"Yeah?"

"Well… I have something pretty amazing here. I'll probably give it to you tomorrow or on Monday. They might be really bad, I don't know, I've never actually tasted - AHH!" Renet's scream jolted Mikey into full-awake mode and he was sitting up in his bed.

"Renet?" he asked, frightened. "Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt?"

All he heard was Renet's gasp of, "I'm okay! But where did he - ?"

Something flashed above Mikey in his room, and down plopped a furry, feathery pile of Klunk.

"Klunk just disappeared," Renet said into the phone in a rush. "He grabbed the candy I was going to give you right out of my hand and disappeared!"

Mikey stared with wide eyes at the cat yokai that was on his bed, yellow eyes glowing.

"Klunk?"

Klunk had something in between his jaws. Mikey reached out, shocked, and took the package before Klunk disappeared in a quick flash.

"He's back," murmured Renet on her side.

Mikey held up the bag Klunk had given him. Chocolate Twizzlers.

"I got them," Mikey said with a wondrous laugh. "I think he can teleport."

Renet's surprised laughter filled his ear.

"Good night, Mikey," she said.

"Good night."

Mikey set the chocolate Twizzlers on his nightstand as the call ended. He closed his eyes, settling underneath the blankets, and faded into sleep.

For once, it was blissfully dreamless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have never tried Chocolate Twizzlers and do not know if they're good or not.
> 
> (Also: Mikey and Renet learning that Klunk can teleport and immediately saying good night to each other is just part of their coping mechanism lol)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I’d be absolutely elated to hear from you and what you thought!
> 
> my [tumblr](https://adelfie.tumblr.com/)


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